Interview with Slipknot: Tightening The Noose

You brought up the fact that you’re a touring band, it was pretty surprising to hear that you have Coheed and Cambria on the bill. Is that a nod to how experimental and expansive the band has become musically?

Yeah, I am not a big fan of making people happy genre wise, I have always said it. No disrespect to metal, but I am in Slipknot not because we are metal band, but because we make our own music. If it needs to be in the genre considered metal, that’s great for everyone, but I am not even a huge fan of metal. Do I like metal, yeah! But I can’t stand bringing some contrived tour to the kids. I want to be a forefather of kids coming and experiencing one band in this realm, and a band like Coheed that is so different than us, but they are successful in their art. That’s important. I think it is more important to leave Slipknot fans with their minds expanding, and you can’t do that by pounding them with four similar things. Not that anyone else is remotely close to us, because we are own thing. But I am at the point now where we just need to get variety and that is what this is all about…experiencing different levels of art. It’s definitely exciting for me, because we get board. I get extremely board with the same crap over and over again. This definitely feels right, because it’s like there is some danger here, and danger is good for the soul, fear is good for the soul. If it is going to make kids work things out, and see thing differently. Its risk taking, not that I feel like it’s a risk, but other people feel that it’s different enough that they have to bring it up. I feel it’s only natural, but it excites me.

You said something really interesting there, danger is good for the soul. What kind of dangers have you had to face that have been good for your soul within the last 10 years?

I made the conscious decision to be married and have children. Luckily, I have the support of my family to allow me to live out my dream. That’s danger everyday; my kids grow up so quick. I have consciously decided to miss a lot of their life, to selfishly pursue this dream of mine own as art… music. Something that I have needed since I was a little kid, so the biggest danger of all is knowing that every time I selfishly get on a bus to go live the experience, people change and I miss out on love and happiness. Last record cycle, I lost my father two weeks before we were done, so it’s like I spent a lot of time wondering how that could even happen. The only answer, I can give myself to this day is that life is random. It’s so random that you can’t even control your process. That’s dangerous, knowing that you have two weeks left to a 14 to 18 month tour cycle, I could have had two years off with my father doing numerous things. The message is take them while you got them, because people disappear from this realm, never to be seen again. That’s danger, I live that everyday now. Every time I leave, I know that there are people in my life that might not be there later. You know what I mean? That kind of stuff is really heavy and all artists who do this for a living, who do this for real, experience that kind of stuff. It starts with birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings, and then it moves up to funerals, these are kind if things that we have to be alright with. Well, I am still not alright with it, but these are the things that you are going to have to be wiling to accept in order to pursue a selfish vision, and it’s dangerous. It’s fear in the utmost horrifying aspect that you could ever realize.